Mbuya Manyonda is Tsvangirai's Mother. Fulstop nga.

What insult! What afront! Maiwe!

Do the  people who are busy making the argument that Mbuya Manyonda, is not Tsvangirai's real mother have something in the containers on their shoulders or are they carrying empty calabashes? I ask this question especially of those who were brought up in the ChiKaranga culture. Or to put it in colonially doctored context, Shona culture.

It is as if my mother's niece or sister is at my funeral and then someone says, "Havasi mai vacho chaivo chaivo." You will be inviting me to jump out of the coffin and give you a mighty clap. Mbama!

Speaking as someone who is absolutely proud of my culture, I want to make it very clear that Mbuya Manyonda is perfectly within her rights to say what she wants at the funeral of HER SON. Mwana wavo. Even her nieces have the right to speak in the role of Tsvangirai's mother, no questions asked.

Those who want to adopt English culture and hold it with a long handle like a torn basket, are just exhibiting the extend of their colonial brainwashing.

Please note, I have not said anything regarding the reasons why she said what she said. I do not care about them and I do not want to know about them. They are irrelevant to the fact that Mbuya Manyonda ndimai va Morgan CHAIVO CHAIVO!

Let me say in terms of MY CULTURE which I believe is also Mbuya Manyonda's culture, there are certain roles that relatives such as vakuwasha, vana and varoora (sons-in-law, children and daughters-in-law) are expected to fulfill. Elders are perfectly within their rights to declare those who fail to fulfil those roles persona non grata. Let me add I do not know the reasons for Mai vaTsvangirai's sentiments therefore I am not going to go deeper into the topic.

Up to now I have not mentioned the MDC. Neither did Mbuya Manyonda mention the party. She mentioned her daughter-in-law (muroora wavo) and Chamisa. As to why Chamisa is being mentioned in the affairs of the Tsvangirai family, I do not know and I do not want to speculate.

I will also not presume it could only be to do with the MDC and its succession circus. It could be for other reasons as well. There is no cultural reason why Tsvangirai mother (Mai vake chaivo chaivo paChikaranga chedu) would involve herself in the party's affairs. Therefore it is very unlikely that her mention of Chamisa has something to do with his rather acrobatic leap for power.

The MDC should stop trying to impose itself on the affairs of the Tsvangirai family because of its dismal failure to manage its succession matters. They should go back to their membership for them to democratically elect their leadership and not expect the late leader's family to ordain a successor for them. Their antics so far suggest that almost their entire leadership have no clue what democracy is.

Let me take off my cultural hat and put on my hat as a liberal democrat. It no point in democracy, whether representative or direct democracy, is a person chosen for whatever role on the basis of perception or selection by an outgoing leader. I person is chosen through a fair and equitable process in which all the constituents are given an opportunity to be represented.

The constituents of a party are the membership and in terms of the MDC constitution the representative body is congress not the Tsvangirai family or social media commentators like me.